


A Will That Cannot Break

by Syntax



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everybody Lives, Experimental Style, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Politics, alternate universe where it rains all the time?, bullet-point fic, i forgot that the city of tears only started raining by hallownest's fall, so uh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22746280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntax/pseuds/Syntax
Summary: When Ghost reaches the platform that will lead them out of the Abyss, there is already another vessel standing at attention in front of the Pale King.There can be only one of them.  Ghost knows that.  There is only one Radiance, and there will be only one Hollow Knight.However.Let it never be said that Ghost is a quitter.They claw their way up to the top of the platform anyway.
Comments: 44
Kudos: 318





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> synsyn the dancing bear - hold this: fic idea for tomorrow "Bretta And Ghost Hold Hands"
> 
> synsyn the dancing bear - also this one: the au from a few days ago but as a bulletpoint fic

  * When Ghost reaches the platform that will lead them out of the Abyss, there is already another vessel standing at attention in front of the Pale King.
  * There can be only one of them. Ghost knows that. There is only one Radiance, and there will be only one Hollow Knight.
  * However.
  * Let it never be said that Ghost is a quitter.
  * They claw their way up to the top of the platform anyway.  
  

  * Two things happen simultaneously:
  * One: Ghost makes more noise climbing up the creaking metal filigree of the platform than any other vessel has before or since.
  * Two: The Pale King turns around and sees that a second vessel has risen to his challenge.  
  

  * The Pale King did not expect this.
  * The Pale King did not plan for this.
  * The Pale King really has no idea what to do with this.
  * But he does have a choice: does he accept this vessel, knowing that it has already proven itself inferior to the first? Or does he leave it in the Abyss, damning it to die for the sheer sin of being just a few seconds too late?
  * In the end, it's not much of a choice at all.
  * It's always been common practice among royalty to keep spares.



  * The two vessels are raised together. Hollow Knights, both of them. They share a nursery. They share a directive. They share a destiny.
  * They compete at all hours to prove they are more worthy to claim it than their sibling.
  * They have no names. They name themselves. These names will never be spoken, but it's the principle of the thing that matters most.
  * Ghost is the youngest, who takes a few tries to get things right, but will never ever stop trying.
  * Hollow is the eldest, who needs only one try, and will never understand the taste of failure.
  * Their lives are ones of simple repetition. Their father shows them a spell or a maneuver or an obstacle that they must copy or overcome.
  * Some days these lessons come easily to the two vessels.
  * Some days there are buzzsaws.
  * Occasionally their training sessions are interrupted by other members of the court, messengers and servants and knights.
  * The vessels are instructed not to interact with these bugs. They are vessels, not children. They do not talk or mingle or slack.
  * They are sacrifices made to save the kingdom. To tarry in their purpose is to let the kingdom fall to ruin.  
  

  * The Pale King watches their progress with a mix of pride and concern. His vessels are strong and grow stronger every day, but every day he notices a widening divide between them.
  * This worries him.
  * His vessels are empty, but they are close to each other. Their performance drops when they are separated.
  * This worries him too.
  * He cannot afford to fail. He cannot afford a faulty vessel. The price he has paid to end the Infection is already too great.
  * He knows what he must do, even if it pains him.
  * He only ever needed one vessel anyways.  
  

  * Meanwhile.
  * Ghost is very curious for a vessel.
  * They see things and they look into things that empty children should not want to see or look into.
  * This is admittedly part of the reason why the Pale King has decided to do away with them.
  * They see the Great Knights training. They see the Castle Guards training. They see themself and their sibling training.
  * And they realize:  
  

  * Everyone else in the castle is teaching something to their training partner so they grow stronger together.
  * Everyone else in the castle is using a variety of different styles to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
  * Everyone else in the castle is working together to complete their goals.
  * Everyone else in the castle, except the two vessels.
  * They have no mind to think, but still they wonder.  
  

  * They do not cede the position of Hollow Knight to their sibling. Let it never be said that Ghost is a quitter.
  * At the same time, they will not deny that their sibling is learning better from the Pale King than they ever could.
  * On the night before the Pale King comes for the younger vessel, they make their sibling a promise.
  * They will grow stronger.
  * They will grow wiser.
  * They will do their best to become a worthy rival to their sibling.
  * And if Hollow is to seal the Radiance before Ghost returns?
  * Then wait.
  * Ghost will arrive soon enough to bring their sibling aid.  
  

  * On the morning the Pale King comes for Ghost, they are already gone.




	2. Chapter 2

  * This is the first thing that Ghost learns about the kingdom of Hallownest: it is far bigger than the White Palace could ever be.
  * This is the second thing that Ghost learns about the Kingdom of Hallownest: it is far colder too.
  * They arrive in the City of Tears with nothing but a blunted nail strapped to their back and a pale cloak dyed grey by the soot and void of the Ancient Basin. They have neither a geo to their name, nor a functioning concept of what geo is.
  * There are admittedly few worse ways to enter a city.
  * Ghost walks along the city streets for hours, taking in the sights and sounds and smells in the way that only someone who has lived their life in one building ever can.
  * They are bumped into many times. They are almost stepped on many times. In at least one occasion, they are almost run over by a weevil pulling a wagon.
  * They learn quickly not to walk in the streets.
  * The rain that the city is named after soaks into them in no time as they walk. There are puddles in the city nearly as deep as Ghost is tall.
  * They're examining one such puddle when a few children invite Ghost into their games, mistaking the small vessel for just another bug going about their day.
  * Ghost don't really know how to play games. They've never really had an opportunity to play before.
  * But they learn easy enough, and they adapt well enough. It's a simple game of trying to knock a ball into a basket without using one's claws. The children are pleased.
  * They play the games until the children grow bored and tired and head their separate ways, and they stand in the street wondering what sort of lesson or skill the game was meant to impart.
  * It does not occur to Ghost that perhaps not everything needs to be a lesson.
  * It does not occur to Ghost that perhaps fun is its own reward.
  * They continue to wander through the city.  
  

  * After an indistinct amount of wandering, they make their way to the market district.
  * They make their way through the various stores and buildings.
  * They make their way to a nailsmith.
  * They stare at the weapons hanging on the wall for just long enough that the smith asks, sarcastically, whether they plan on buying a nail, or whether they plan on stealing one.
  * Having lived their life in the White Palace where everything that they needed was given to them, Ghost has no concept of either purchase or purloin.
  * They do however, have a concept of "take."
  * By sheer miracle the nailsmith is not looking at them when they remove a nail from the racks on the wall and replace it with their blunted training nail.
  * The same miracle unfortunately did not extend to when Ghost left the nailsmith's shop with their new weapon.
  * There is yelling.
  * There are guards.
  * There is yelling coming out from the guards.
  * And then there is Ghost, who, upon seeing the yelling and guards and yelling guards all directed at them, managed to put two and two together and determine that the Pale King was angry they had left they White Palace and wanted to retrieve them.
  * In short it was a bit of a mess.
  * Fortunately, bugs small enough to be mistaken for small children are easy to lose in a place as large as the City of Tears.
  * Ghost ran and ran and jumped and hid, and eventually they managed to lose the guards trailing after them.  
  

  * When the Pale King's personal guards finally did arrive at the nailsmith's shop hours later after hearing that a bug matching Ghost's description had been found in the area, the blunted training nail they left behind would be the only trace the Pale King finds of the missing vessel for many months.  
  

  * A long ways away from the market district, it takes Ghost a while after losing the guards before they finally leave their hiding spot.
  * There are many alleyways in the City of Tears that a fugitive vessel could hide in, but many of them ended in closed off spaces which Ghost had no means of escaping to. So they just found a spot covered in thick fabric and hid there until all the loud noises stopped. Easy.
  * Coincidentally, at some point during their hiding, their hiding spot started moving.
  * Ghost peeks their head out from under the fabric. A startled bug looks back at them from the back of the cargo wagon they were riding in.
  * There is no miracle to prevent the vessel from being thrown out of the wagon and left stranded on the Pilgrim's Way. They had already used up their luck for the day. Not that Ghost had any concept of luck.
  * They don't really have much of an idea of where to go either.
  * Ghost stands on the bridge and looks back at the City of Tears shining bright on the other side of the Pilgrim's Way, then forward to the Fungal Wastes stretching hazily ahead of them.
  * They don't know what lay ahead in the wastes. But presumably their chances of being beset upon by guards will be lower and lower the further they go from the White Palace.
  * Ghost can't go back to the palace yet. They aren't strong enough. They've only been learning on their own for a day. The Fungal Wastes would have to be it then.
  * They start walking.  
  

  * A few steps along the Pilgrim's way, Ghost draws the new nail from their back and tests a few swings with it to gauge the weight and heft of it.
  * They hadn't had a chance to do so before the guards came, unfortunate coincidence that it was.
  * The nail is heavier than what they were used to. It requires more force to use.
  * Therefore, adjusting to the difference until the new nail is as easy to wield as the old nail would make them stronger.
  * Therefore, switching nails every so often to bigger and heavier models would make them even stronger even faster?
  * They didn't know the answer to that question, but the logic seemed sound.
  * As they walk, they practice swinging the nail. They practice until their arms ache, and practice some more.
  * The repeated motions will not hurt them. They do not have muscles to damage.
  * As they practice, they go over the events of the day so far and what they've accomplished.
  * They've ran an obstacle course. They've acquired new equipment. They've learned whatever skill the ball game was meant to teach.
  * It's not a new spell, but it's more than what they usually get done in a day.
  * Clearly, leaving the Palace was the right idea after all.




	3. Chapter 3

  * It takes roughly about a day and a half of traveling in the Fungal Wastes, testing their new nail on whatever creatures they find, before Ghost ends up falling into the Mantis Village.
  * They fall, and they land, and they look up to see a horde of mantises frozen in the middle of every day mundanities all staring at them and the nail strapped to their back.
  * They do not move. They reason that perhaps if they appear to have perished in the fall, the mantises will not attack.
  * The mantises, obviously, attack anyways.
  * Ghost has little experience in fending off multiple opponents. They have only trained with the Pale King and their sibling. The extent of their knowledge of dealing with multiple opponents is sparring with Hollow while their father lobbed daggers of soul at the both of them.
  * The bladed claws of the mantis warriors are less painful than their father's daggers, but no less difficult to dodge.
  * They strike out with their nail as much as they can, slash, stab, parry, riposte.
  * They do not stop moving. They do not stop advancing.
  * They fight as their father had taught them.
  * It is almost enough.
  * The mantises are too many, and so are Ghost's wounds. Even if they should fend off their current attackers, only more would come to pick up the slack.
  * They could fight until their shell gives out, and all it would win them is death by attrition.  
  

  * Luckily for Ghost, today is a new day, and fate has seen fit to allot them a new minor miracle to spend.  
  

  * While fighting and running and running and fighting, staying on the move, staying on their toes, the vessel slips in their escape.
  * They slip, and they fall even further down into the Mantis Village, where the Mantis Lords are holding a meeting.
  * A very important meeting, as a matter of fact. One that would have been historic among the mantises with or without Ghost's intervention.
  * As it stands, there are few better ways to make a first impression than to fall nail-first on a Traitor who had just attacked his fellow Lords.  
  

  * They are placed in a cell while what remains of the Traitor Lord is taken away to be paraded through the village.
  * Considering how mantises usually deal with outsiders in their midst, the imprisonment is a grand mercy.
  * Ghost does not know this, however. Ghost does not know anything about the mantises, whose culture and customs were not deemed important enough for the vessels to know.
  * As far as Ghost knows, they are to wait in the cell because of their inability to adequately defend themself.
  * The Pale King will surely be disappointed in his vessel. They have failed him at every turn.
  * They await punishment in their cell for days on end. How many, they do not know.
  * Timekeeping and basic mathematics were also not deemed important enough for the vessels to know.
  * Eventually, the door to their cell opens.
  * Ghost lowers their head. They close their eyes. They are ready to accept their punishment.
  * They are not, however, ready for the sensation of a claw gently caressing their mask.
  * They look up.
  * The newest Mantis Lord looks back down at Ghost with an expression that they do not understand.  
  

  * Ghost learns three things very quickly about the Mantis Village:
  * One, they are free only at the mercy of the Fledgling Lord, who wishes to repay them for allowing her father's followers to remain in the village without sacrificing their honor. Should the Fledgling Lord choose, Ghost will be killed, at any time, for any reason.
  * Such is the Way of the Mantis.
  * Two, they are free from the eyes of the Pale King, who is shunned by the mantises and considered little more than an uppity grub with an annoyingly large army. Any bug powerful enough to best a Mantis Lord is considered a mantis by right, and the mantises would rather die than give up one of their own to the Wyrm.
  * Such is the Way of the Mantis.
  * Three, they are not free from fighting, for the mantis warriors are eager to test their blades against the nail of an unknown combatant and see what they can learn from the fight. Honor is strength and strength can only be obtained through practice, suffering, and battle against strong opponents.
  * Such is the Way of the Mantis.
  * Ghost learns and learns and learns and learns and realizes something, very abruptly, at the end of a long day a week or two into their stay in the Fungal Wastes.
  * If the Mantis Village had so much more to offer them than the White Palace had, they should have come here a long time ago.  
  

  * They spend much of their time among the mantises with the Fledgling Lord.
  * By right, she and she alone holds ownership over Ghost's life, so it is in Ghost's best interests to keep her appeased lest she decide to kill them. She doesn't really seem like she wants to kill them though, so that's not really an issue.
  * For the most part, spending time with the Fledgling Lord is not unlike spending time with the Pale King back when Ghost still lived at the White Palace, with the exception that Hollow is not there with them to endure their new training regiment.
  * Like the Pale King, she does not talk to them much, or seek them out much. Every morning she greets Ghost by attacking them, and every morning they fight until one of them surrenders or is unable to go on.
  * Which really means that they fight until the Fledgling Lord surrenders or Ghost is unable to go on.
  * They've got about a 50/50 win/loss ratio going so far, which is better than can be said about their time with the Pale King.
  * When the battle is over Ghost is free to wander the village and deal with whatever other mantises want to fight them as they wish. The ratios they hold with the other mantises of the village, particularly the soldiers, are far less favorable, but Ghost is slowly starting to win more fights than they lose. The mantises are nearly as pleased with the vessel's own progress as they are.
  * The Fledgling Lord too, is pleased with their progress. For some reason the idea that the one who killed her father is growing stronger by the day encourages her rather than frightens her.
  * She explains the reasoning to Ghost one day. Something about wondering how strong Ghost will eventually become, and how strong she would become by fighting them every morning.  
  

  * They can understand this. They fought with Hollow every day for much of the same reason.
  * They wonder how their sibling is doing in the White Palace, so far away with only their father for company.
  * They have not forgotten their sibling.
  * They have not forgotten their promise.
  * They stay with the mantises and work as hard as they can to grow stronger.



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so hey this chapter had actually been written for months now and i never posted it because i wanted it to cover the entirety of ghost's stay in the mantis village. right now it only covers like the first few weeks.
> 
> the parts that lead to ghost leaving the mantis village have been trimmed off and will be placed in the next chapter. i have no idea when i'm going to be writing that since i've got other projects to work on at the moment.


	4. Chapter 4

  * Perhaps a large number of weeks or a small smattering of months since Ghost arrived in the Fungal Wastes, they learn something very important:
  * The Mantis Village may not have willing dealings with the Kingdom of Hallownest, but that does not mean that there are no dealings whatsoever.  
  

  * Ghost exists the longhall of the Mantis Lords after besting the Fledgling Lord in battle for the 31st time and sees one of the Five Great Knights standing at the gates of the village, waiting to be allowed inside.
  * They have neither a will to break nor a mind to think, but the fear they feel lancing through them at the sight of pale armor is so great that they wonder for a moment if perhaps one of their father's soul daggers had pierced through their shell without them knowing.
  * There should not be a knight standing at the gates.
  * _Why_ is there a knight standing at the gates?
  * They stand in the entrance of the Longhall, staring at the pale armored figure who has only by some miracle yet to notice them.
  * There is no reason for one of the Five Great Knights to visit the Mantis Village.
  * Unless.
  * Unless the knight must be be there to take them back to the White Palace.  
  

  * There is a chill within Ghost that is greater than anything the void can produce. That must be the answer. It _must_.
  * Their contact with the Pale King's knights was limited only to passing in doorways and happening to exist in the same room, but Ghost knows the knights know what the vessels are and what their purpose is. Ogrim in particular had been very outspoken to the Pale King on the subject of the Hollow Knights.
  * They have been gone for a long time. The Pale King has surely noticed their absence by now.
  * They have been gone for not nearly enough time. They still need to become stronger, the same as their sibling is surely doing in the White Palace.
  * They are not yet ready to become the Hollow Knight.
  * They are not yet ready to go back to the White Palace.
  * Ghost walks right back into the Longhall and right back into the Fledgling Lord's tender carapace.
  * Whoops.  
  

  * If the Fledgling Lord notices their unease, she does not say anything.
  * If the Fledgling Lord notices their hurry, she does not say anything to that either.
  * What she does say instead is a question wondering why they have returned so quickly when there is so much sparring to be done outside of the Longhouse.
  * Normally, Ghost would agree with her. Normally, they would be out sparring with the other mantises.
  * However.
  * There is a Great Knight out there. And so any sparring Ghost will do today will have to wait.
  * At least, that's how retreating into the Longhouse was supposed to work.
  * Unfortunately for Ghost, they have no voice with which to cry their suffering, and so the Fledgling Lord hears not of their distress and determination.
  * She gives a huff, and she cracks a joke at their expense, and she places her claws on the vessel's small shoulders. And she marches them forward once more.
  * Right out the front door, back towards the gate.
  * They are squirming and struggling in her grasp, but sparring against the vessel has made the Fledgling Lord strong, and she will not waver. She sings songs of battle as she walks.
  * Her song stops the moment they leave the Longhouse.  
  

  * Ghost has never, and will never understand their miracles. To them, such lucky coincidences are not the boon of being born part God in addition to part Void. They are merely events that happen, nothing more.
  * But for you, Oh Reader, know this well: the vessel has stored many small miracles in their time with the mantises, as no moment since their joining has ever been truly so dangerous as to require one.
  * In this moment, however, all of those stored miracles are expended at once.
  * The Fledgling Lord sees the Knight standing at the Gates, and Mysterious Ze'mer sees her in turn.  
  

  * There is a moment that passes between the two bugs. One that the vessel held in place between them is not privy to.
  * They do not know what happens during this moment, nor what it is, nor why it occurs in the first place.
  * They only know that it ends when the Fledgling Lord pushes them aside and runs to the gates to greet the Great Knight waiting there.
  * They do not know what is happening, but they will not argue with the results they have been given.
  * They are a Vessel, yes, but by the Way of the Mantis so too are they the Fledgling Lord's kin. The Fledgling Lord will not let mysterious Ze'mer take them back to the White Palace. She will not break the Way of the Mantis.
  * But at the same time, she might not have a choice if Ghost is to reveal themself so brazenly. An uppity grub the Pale King may be in mantis eyes, but his power is undeniable. They will not bring risk to the bugs that have so kindly sheltered and trained them by bringing his wrath down upon the Mantis Village.
  * So Ghost sneaks away as best they can while Mysterious Ze'mer and the Fledgling Lord are otherwise occupied, trusting that their time among the quick warriors of the mantis has taught them some modicum of stealth.
  * It has.  
  

  * They spend the next several days on edge. Mysterious Ze'mer has not come for them.
  * Yet.
  * But it is only a matter of time.
  * She has not left the Mantis village since arriving, though she cannot be said to have truly entered. The mantises do not take kindly to outsiders, especially ones with such great ties to the Pale King. The Great Knight has spent the past several days camped outside of the village gates, speaking to the Fledgling Lord whenever she deigns to visit.
  * The Fledgling Lord deigns to visit a _lot_. Like, it's actually kind of weird. Her routine has shifted to the point where after sparring with Ghost, most of her time is spent talking with Mysterious Ze'mer.
  * The vessel might have had a hope for figuring out _why_ given enough time, but alas, they are a child, and kind of on a time limit considering the whole Infection thing, so what possible reason there could be behind such talks is lost to them.
  * The talks keep the Great Knight occupied and away from them, however, and for that Ghost is infinitely thankful.
  * That thanks does not last for very long.  
  

  * One morning after defeating the Fledgling Lord for the 35th time, she takes them by the shoulders and leads them out to the gate once more. And she tells them, very gently, that she wants to confirm something.
  * The Great Knight at the gate is looking for a certain bug, and while she doubts that the small thing under her claws is who Mysterious Ze'mer seeks, they _are_ the only new arrival that the Mantis Village has had in a while. It's only logical to let the Knight take a look at them.
  * _Do not worry,_ she says, _for I can't see anything about you that would be of interest to the Pale King._
  * She could not possibly be more wrong, but Ghost does not have any way of informing her as such.
  * So instead they walk.
  * The walk is very short, hardly the length of the longhouse itself, but it is long enough for Ghost to go through several stages of grief.
  * The vessel wants so dearly to run, but they live and die by her whims as per the Way of the Mantis, and they have too much to do to just die.
  * The vessel wants so dearly to _fight_ , but they live and die by her whims as per the Way of the Mantis, and they have too much to do to just die.
  * There is nothing they can do. Without a mouth to cry suffering they cannot even bargain or explain themself. Every step closer to the gate is a step closer to failure, to breaking their promise, to returning to the White Palace to greet their father and sibling in shame.
  * Their only comfort is the fact that they managed to escape once before already, and could possibly do so again.
  * It is hardly any help.  
  

  * When they arrive at the gate, three things happen simultaneously—
  * One: Mysterious Ze'mer sees them.
  * Two: Mysterious Ze'mer recognizes them.
  * Three: The Fledgling Lord asks if whatever sort of bug Ghost is might have come from Ze'mer's homeland.
  * The silence that ensues as she inspects them is more painful than any of their father's daggers. Any of the buzzsaws, even.
  * _Meled'love_ , she says finally, _This is the one who allowed you to stay where we could be together?_
  * The Fledgling Lord nods.
  * Mysterious Ze'mer hums in thought, angling her head this way and that.
  * Then she smiles.
  * _How lucky then, that Le'mer is not the one che' seeks. This little one—Le'mer is a mantis as sure as che' has ever seen.  
_
  * She says a few more things to the Fledgling Lord before ultimately packing up her tent and heading back to the White Palace, but the vessel does not hear them.
  * They are filled with something. They did not know they could contain anything other than the Old Light, but there is something in them now that fills them to bursting.
  * After weeks or months, Ghost finally understands what emotion it was that the Traitor Lord's daughter wore that day when she first came to their cell.  
  

  * It is gratitude.



**Author's Note:**

> hey i was originally only going to release this fic all at once when all the chapters were completed, but the majority of the fic was saved as a draft in ao3 itself.
> 
> i knew i had plenty of time to complete it, but i got anxious and decided to release the parts that i had completed now before i could forget about them, since i have let ao3 drafts expire instead of finish them more than once.
> 
> don't expect frequent updates. i have a bunch of other stories to work on as well as this one.


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